For anyone who was there, how big was New Kids on The Block in the 80s? Who would you compare their 80s fame to today? Were they as big as Michael Jackson, Madonna, and Prince?

I know a pretty fine answer to that which i can't post

good question

I guess they had a big (not huge) number of american teenage fans in the late-80s (golden age of the rotten dance-pop) and then they crossed over to a bigger audience during the New Jack Swing era, just before the grunge/hip-hop revolution

but as big as Madonna, Prince, MJ, U2, etc??? NO CHANCE IN HELL

their albums never sold that much, maybe platinum, that's all, not multi-platinum or diamond

am I right?

Bester24 said:

For anyone who was there, how big was New Kids on The Block in the 80s? Who would you compare their 80s fame to today? Were they as big as Michael Jackson, Madonna, and Prince?

*
I was there, and their success and fame reminds me of that which currently surrounds

Justin Bieber's.

If you can go to a department store and buy bedsheets, lamps, gowns, dolls, and all sorts of other things with them on it, then they had to be pretty popular. Some magazines called their popularity the new Beatlemania. Their 1st album which didn't sell when originally released, all of a sudden became multi-platinum.

I remember the Hangin' Tough album in the late 80s was HUGE. When New Kids were hot during this time, they were hotter than Prince, Madonna and Michael Jackson.

[Edited 6/4/13 13:54pm]

I'd compare their popularity in the 80s to the likes of Hannah Montana and the Jonas Bros at their respective peaks. Beloved by youngsters and completely unavoidable if you watched TV or looked at the mag racks of 7-11, but not taken even a little bit seriously by adults. I think Bieber may have actually penetrated the culture

I don't know sales stats so it's possible at their peak they were outselling Prince in 1989 but I'd be shocked if they outsold Madonna or MJ whose audience included both kids and grownups.

1990 was probably their peak year. They were pretty darn big, just maybe affected by a general slump in record sales for the time compared to 10 years later. It was quite a big thing in 1991 when they were the top earners of the year ahead of MJ and Madonna.

If social networking and the internet was around they'd have been Justin Bieber level of annoying.

Thinking about the MJ/Madonna factor though, as they were still relatively young (early 30s), they were still HUGE with kids at my school on top of the current young boy bands. Now might be different. Katy Perry is 28 and is probably the oldest of the current "superstars" that are also pupular with young kids.

They were a Money Making Machine!

ok, I was WRONG , their albums DID achieve multi-platinum status

which only reinforces my theory that popular music started its slow but steady decline in the late 80's

I remember they were huge with Hangin' Tough and Step By Step. Maybe the most popular band of the end of the 80's-beginning of the 90's, together with U2. By the way, Step By Step included a pretty decent tune, "Tonight".

bobzilla77 said:

I'd compare their popularity in the 80s to the likes of Hannah Montana and the Jonas Bros at their respective peaks. Beloved by youngsters and completely unavoidable if you watched TV or looked at the mag racks of 7-11, but not taken even a little bit seriously by adults. I think Bieber may have actually penetrated the culture

I don't know sales stats so it's possible at their peak they were outselling Prince in 1989 but I'd be shocked if they outsold Madonna or MJ whose audience included both kids and grownups.

Madonna's audience included kids??? KIDS???

Javi said:

I remember they were huge with Hangin' Tough and Step By Step. Maybe the most popular band of the end of the 80's-beginning of the 90's, together with U2. By the way, Step By Step included a pretty decent tune, "Tonight".

I'd put Bon Jovi and Guns N Roses up there too for that era as far as album sales.

JoeTyler said:

Madonna's audience included kids??? KIDS???

I was 8-9 when I became a Madonna fan! I was 18-19 when I went off her.

Actually I was also 8-9 when I first started liking Prince too. All of their sexual lyrics just went over my head, as did a lot of things. Grease was my favourite movie at the age of 6 and I must have been 12 before figuring out some of the meanings behind the slang in that.

[Edited 6/4/13 13:44pm]

bobzilla77 said:

I'd compare their popularity in the 80s to the likes of Hannah Montana and the Jonas Bros at their respective peaks. Beloved by youngsters and completely unavoidable if you watched TV or looked at the mag racks of 7-11, but not taken even a little bit seriously by adults. I think Bieber may have actually penetrated the culture

I don't know sales stats so it's possible at their peak they were outselling Prince in 1989 but I'd be shocked if they outsold Madonna or MJ whose audience included both kids and grownups.

RIAA certifications for 1988/1989 releases:

Hangin' Tough = 8x platinum

Like A Prayer = 4x platinum

Lovesexy = platinum

Batman soundtrack - 2x platinum

Ellie said:

JoeTyler said:

Madonna's audience included kids??? KIDS???

I was 8-9 when I became a Madonna fan! I was 18-19 when I went off her.

why?

JoeTyler said:

Ellie said:

I was 8-9 when I became a Madonna fan! I was 18-19 when I went off her.

why?

Saw her live. She was shit.

Ellie said:

JoeTyler said:

why?

Saw her live. She was shit.

what tour?

EMPEROR101 said:

They were a Money Making Machine!

They had a cartoon TV show too.

^^ ^the decline of Western culture

JoeTyler said:

Ellie said:

Saw her live. She was shit.

what tour?

Well it was Drowned World when I was about 19, then I went back again for Re-Invention a few years later with stage side seats hoping for the best and it was even worse. Totally dead atmosphere filled with corporates at the front. The ticket prices just aren't worth it at all for her. Still a huge fan of the old music though.

I'll tell you what though, I've seen NKOTB 3 times and they were incredibly fun with tickets a third of the price Madonna charges.

I was a little kid then but I was a huge fan and still am. I drove my father crazy with them , anything with their name on it I had it (and I still have some of the merchandise) Apart of my life was complete when I saw them in 2008 for their reunion concert. They were pretty big and 1990 was their biggest year.

New Kids were huge but MTV refused to play their videos in the '80s. I remember it being a really big deal when MTV premiered "Step By Step" in 1990; the ban was finally being lifted.

[Edited 6/4/13 14:26pm]

Ellie said:

JoeTyler said:

what tour?

Well it was Drowned World when I was about 19, then I went back again for Re-Invention a few years later with stage side seats hoping for the best and it was even worse. Totally dead atmosphere filled with corporates at the front. The ticket prices just aren't worth it at all for her. Still a huge fan of the old music though.

I'll tell you what though, I've seen NKOTB 3 times and they were incredibly fun with tickets a third of the price Madonna charges.

piss off

Right you are then

Ellie said:

Right you are then

a tiny shard of memory just dislodged itself from the darkest recesses

of my brain and i remembered that i actually had one of their albums,

in 1990

i think it was called "step by step" and it had this pink/purple-ish cover

and back.

IstenSzek said:

a tiny shard of memory just dislodged itself from the darkest recesses

of my brain and i remembered that i actually had one of their albums,

in 1990

i think it was called "step by step" and it had this pink/purple-ish cover

and back.

My favorite album from them.

[img:$uid]http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/thumb/2/2f/Stepbystep_album_cover.jpg/220px-Stepbystep_album_cover.jpg[/img:$uid]

Huge i can tell you that much, much bigger than i would say Nsync, Backstreet and Britney, not looking at the numbers cause you really dont have the same tracking systems in place. As someone who worked in Music Retail right when they blew up, i can tell you i had people around me saying that when "step by step" was released and lines formed for it day off, they had never seen anything like that, so they were huge, and though then i was like "f these kids" gotta give them props for being able to put a strong new record, and tour now in their 40's. Met Donnie recently in NYC and the coolest dude, i think thats really why they can still go out there.